Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has spoken of his delight at the sale of the club to New England Sports Ventures, saying “a cloud has been lifted”.
The news broke this afternoon after Tom Hicks and George Gillett failed to retain control of the club and NESV were presented to the media as the new owners of the club.
Back on Merseyside, during his press conference for this Sunday’s Premier League game against Everton, Hodgson said, “It’s a very good day for the club. It’s a relief…it’s been a very difficult couple of weeks.
“There’s no doubt a cloud has been lifted from the football club today.
“For this long drawn-out court battle to take place and Liverpool’s name to be on the television screens and in the newspapers every day for anything other than positive reasons has been a bad time.
“We’ve had to live through that bad time but hopefully now, if NESV are going to take over, that would be very good news for us going into the important match at the weekend.”
Managing Director Christian Purslow was also evidently ecstatic at today’s result.
“We’ve sorted out our financial issues once and for all and we can now get back to football,” he said.
“It was incredibly civilised and it’s just a pleasure to work with people like Martin Broughton. We have the best lawyers in London… it was tranquillity.”
Former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier was also a very happy figure as he gave his pre-match press conference ahead of Aston Villa‘s clash with Chelsea tomorrow.
Houllier told press, “The mess at Anfield has effected results on the pitch. It’s hard to organise and for players to focus when so much is going on.
“I have followed the very closley and I’m pleased that in the end there’s a happy ending.”
See the fans reaction in the forums as the celebrations begin.
